UKIP blames gay marriage win on Europe

The Euro-sceptic UK Independence Party has blamed Prime Minister David Cameron’s decision to introduce marriage equality on the European Union.

UKIP claimed the EU Parliament was planning to require member states to recognize civil partnerships and marriages from other countries last November.

‘Many people have been asking what prompted the Prime Minister to pick this uncalled-for fight with many people in his own party and the country at large,’ said UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

‘It has also been unclear why the same debate is being had simultaneously in other countries such as France, where opposition is also growing. Now we know the answer.’

Farage claimed the paragraph would ‘establish an EU-wide right to same-sex marriage’.

However the report in question, by Italian MEP Luigi Berlinguer, is recommendations on how to fight inequalities across EU member states. It was also released in 2010.

The original paragraph reads: ‘[It] welcomes the Commissions efforts to empower citizens to exercise their free movement rights and strongly supports plans to enable the mutual recognition of the effects of civil status documents.’

Arlene McCarthy, Labour MEP’s Legal Affairs spokesperson, said: ‘It’s clearly in our families’ interests to make sure they remain a family in the eyes of the countries they visit, live in or travel to.’

In January this year, it was revealed several members had used UKIP’s official forum to air extremist homophobic views.

Unlike the three main parties, Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats, UKIP is against marriage equality.

UKIP’s primary objective, when it was founded in 1993, was the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union.

In 2013 it has 12 of the 73 UK seats in the European Parliament, three members in the House of Lords, but no politicians in the House of Commons.

Due to the decreasing popularity of the Liberal Democrats, UKIP was hopeful of a breakthrough and gain seats in the 2015 General Election.